Girls' Volleyball
by Daze Rivers
Summary: Hinata decides he's going to teach Natsu to play volleyball so she can beat Takeru, Oikawa's nephew. Kageyama is happy to help. Tired of being alone, Kageyama wants to make friends and sort out what exactly it is Kageyama feels toward HInata. However, coaching Natsu has unforeseen consequences for Kageyama, who is forced to learn and really think.


This wasn't the first time Kageyama had worn a skirt. As he tossed the ball to Hinata, also in the girl's uniform, Kageyama thought wearing a skirt really wasn't such a big deal. For Gender Exchange Day, everyone had switched uniforms and they had had to sit through assembly after assembly on sexism and gender equality and something about transgender awareness. Kageyama hadn't been paying attention. Mostly, he'd just slept.

"You know," Hinata said. He spiked the ball instead of receiving it and Kageyame frowned as he tossed another. "I was thinking about Natsu. You remember what that lady said? About women being discouraged in sports? Well, you remember the Grand King's nephew?"

"Takeru." Kageyame said. Kageyama remembered being seven and playing dress up with his cousin. She had wanted to play princesses and host some kind of princess fight, but he had just wanted to play volleyball.

You can't play volleyball in a skirt Tobio!

In a way, Kageyama felt oddly vindicated.

"I was thinking I should help coach Natsu like that. If the Grand King can do it, I can to."

"What are you supposed to teach her? You can't even receive dumbass," Kageyama set the ball too high, making Hinata fumble the receive and prove Kageyama point. Hinata sighed and scratched his thigh under the skirt. It looked a little obscene, but Kageyama wasn't sure he shouldhave noticed it anyway.

"Well you could help. And then we could challenge the Grand King's nephew! And Natsu will beat him!" There was fire in Hinata's eyes now and Kageyama let himself grin, just a little. He didn't do it a lot, since people had told him his smile was scary, but now and then he supposed it didn't matter. His skirt swayed in the breeze and this time, when he tossed to Hinata, Hinata received it perfectly and tossed him something back. Kageyama dove to receive, knee pads sliding on the grass. He was sure his skirt flew up, and if there were people behind him, they could probably see his boxers. He didn't care.

"Where would we practice?" Kageyama asked. There was a gymnasium where he lived, but there was also a good chance Oikawa would be there.

"I'll think of something." Hinata said and then he didn't say anything else about it for the rest of the day. Kageyama went home. He knew he was supposed to return the girl's uniform, but he didn't.

Instead, he lied down on his bed, in the uniform skirt and his undershirt, and played with the bow red ribbon. His mom had helped him tie the bow this morning, but now Kageyama practiced tying and retying it. He thought about Noriko, his cousin. She played baseball, or she used to. She would probably know something about what it was like to play girls sports and if Hinata and Kageyama decided they really were going to train Natsu, Kageyama should probably ask her.

His mom wasn't going to be home any time soon. Kageyama didn't know what a senior derivatives analyst did, but he knew it took a long time. He wasn't mad at her, she worked hard to provide for them, but sometimes, when Kageyama was all alone in the house, with something on his mind that wouldn't come to fruition, sometimes he wished she was here.

Kageyama didn't remember falling asleep, but he woke up the next morning with the red ribbon tangled between his fingers, stilling wearing a skirt.

* * *

Kageyama was the first one at practice besides Yachi and Shimizu who were sitting on the bleachers, talking and waiting.

"Was it hard?" Yachi asked Shimizu. "Wearing the boys' uniform? Were you worried you'd look like a guy and people would misgender you?" Yachi asked. She swung her legs as she looked at Shimizu. Kageyama didn't know what they were talking about. But he saw Shimizu shake her head. Her eyes looked liked she was far away, but maybe Kageyama was wrong. He wasn't good with this sort of thing.

Yachi spotted him and waved him over. "How did you like wearing a skirt? The pants were freeing like…like normal pants! Except in school…" Yachi furrowed her brow and tried to rework her analogy. Kageyama knew, on some level, that he should say he hated it. A lot of guys complained about it yesterday. Hinata hadn't. Hinata had said it wasn't so different from wearing a yutaka and that the whole point of Gender Exchange Day was to learn, not to complain.

"I didn't care. Clothes are…" Kageyama shrugged. "They didn't stop be form playing volleyball." Yachi nodded and grinned. She looked at Kageyama for a moment, and then looked at Shimizu. Kageyama felt too big standing there, too awkward. He didn't know what he was supposed to say, he wasn't any good at guy talk, let alone girl talk.

"That's very honest of you." Shimizu said. She smiled. Kageyama had seen most of the volleyball team faint over that smile, and while it was nice, he didn't understand why. Shimizu was beautiful, and kind and her smile reminded him a little bit of a calm water, perfect in its elegance. But it was just a smile. And a skirt was just a skirt. Kageyama shrugged.

"I'm…" Yachi paused for a moment.

"Did you ever want to play volleyball?" Kageyama asked suddenly.

"Hmm? I don't really know anything about it." Yachi scratched her neck. "I think it'd embarrass myself, and I'm so short…" Yachi pouted, but then laughed.

"I—but before, when you were a kid? You never played sports?"

"I don't know. If I had friends who were playing I usually played, but then I guess, over time, I had less friends who did, most of my friends just study and shop, except you guys, but that's why I like hanging out with you, it's different." Yachi smiled and continued on about her different friends. Kageyama tried to listen and remember.

"You can come with us, if you want. Shopping." Yachi said. She nudged Kageyama in the side. There was something he wasn't understanding.

"Okay." He said. Yachi blinked for a moment, like she had expected him to disagree. "I need new pants." Kageyama shrugged. He didn't really need new pants. He just hated most of the one he had. Kageyama didn't know why, all he knew was that every time he wore them and looked at them in the mirror he hated them.

Yachi smiled and assured him that she did want him to come. "It's just, it was going to be a 'girls night' it's…they'll be fine with it, but I don't want you to feel awkward."

Kageyama thought of all the presentations he had slept through yesterday. Someone else finally arrived in the gym, complaining that the vice principal had stopped them, demanding to know if they knew why one of the girl's uniforms was missing from yesterday's uniform swap. Apparently, the vice principal suspected that someone had stole it out of the storage room, which was close by the volleyball change rooms.

"That's weird." Kageyama said. And then he focused on volleyball and started practice.

* * *

Hinata brought up Natsu again while they were walking home. "So I asked Natsu yesterday if she wanted to learn how to play volleyball and she said yes! If you could come over this week I think we could take her to the park by my house and teach her the basics."

Kageyama nodded. "Ask her if she wants to bring her friends." He looked at Hinata briefly. "She-She's not going to be very good right off the bat right? She should have friends—a team, to practice with."

"That's actually a good idea."

"Don't act surprised dumbass!"

"I just wasn't sure you wanted to help me!" Hinata laughed as he walked beside his bike. His laughter was too loud in the night, but it was perfect. Kageyama wished he could laugh like that. When he laughed people usually backed away slowly. Something fluttered in Kageyama's gut as he looked on at Hinata.

"I like volleyball, and Natsu's nice." Kageyama shrugged.

"You don't seem like you like children."

"I like children." Kageyama said. They just didn't usually like him. They were like animals that way. His mom used to say it was because he was just big and didn't show his emotions well. When he was a kid he'd gotten along better with animals. His dad had even taken him to the zoo once before the divorce.

"So it's settled. This Sunday, come to my house." Hinata and Kageyama had arrived at the cross roads were they usually parted. Hinata hopped on his bike and sped off, waving and smiling. Kageyama didn't know why his heart was beating harder in his chest. He tried to shake himself for a second.

He wasn't a complete idiot, but Kageyama wasn't sure why these things kept happening. He knew a crush was one option, but that would mean he'd have to be gay right? Or something? He didn't actually know a lot of things about it. He got the impression that there were more than two sexualities, at least there were various flags for them, but he wasn't actually sure what his options were.

At any rate he sort of liked girls, and the way he liked girls was very different than the way he liked Hinata. So it couldn't be a crush right?

Kageyama liked that girls had skirts, and were soft looking and Kageyama liked when they wore hair ribbons because hair ribbons were smooth and silky between his fingers. He like the knee high sock aesthetic and long hair. Girls were very visually appealing. Boys were sort of…meh

What did guys have? Cargo shorts and sandals?

Still, Kageyama had never wanted to kiss a girl, or hold hands with a girl. And while he sometimes wanted to run his fingers through their hair that was as much touching as he wanted. He definitely did not want to have sex with any of them. But he didn't really want to have sex with Hinata either.

Kageyama sighed and walked home. His mom was home, for once, but she was lying on the couch, binge watching some TV shows and clearly exhausted. He didn't want to bother her. Instead he went to his room, did his homework and then opened up his closet.

He stared at the stolen uniform and carefully took it out. He took out all the pieces separately, leaving the ribbon on his bed and carefully putting everything back in separate places. He stuffed the skirt in his underwear drawer. Kageyama tied a bow around his wrist and wondered what 'misgender' meant. He had heard Yachi talk about earlier today.

Usually, when Kageyama was confused he didn't look into it. He just let it be. Usually, he didn't think to hard about Hinata or girls or clothes. Instead he thought about volleyball, none of these things mattered when he was playing volleyball.

But he didn't want to offend Yachi. He wanted to be her friend and if that meant he had to look up bizarre words then that's what he was going to do. He was going to make friends and coach Natsu and he was going to be just as good as Oikawa. He was going to make him mother proud and he was going to stop feeling like there was something missing from his life, something that he couldn't quiet see.

Kageyama was tried of being alone.


End file.
